February 17, 2022
LABOR’S deputy leader Richard Marles deleted a 2019 speech he delivered in China from his website and promised the Chinese Community Party closer ties with Labor should they win government, a key Liberal senator claims.
In September, 2019, former defence spokesman Mr Marles visited China as part of a “study tour” during which it was reported he urged closer defence ties between Canberra and Beijing.
Speaking at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Mr Marles told an audience Australia and China should “(explore) political co-operation and even defence co-operation”.
“I deeply believe that we must build our relationship with China to the greatest possible extent and beyond our economic interaction,” Mr Marles said.
Senator James Paterson, chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security, called it a “fawning” speech.
Senator Paterson also pointed to a statement issued about the same time by the CCP’s “International Department Central Committee” which claimed “the Labor Party is willing to deepen exchanges … so as to promote the development of Australia-China relations”.
“It’s very easy for Labor to pretend on the eve of an election that there is a bipartisan position on China, but you’d have to have the memory of a goldfish to think that’s always been the case,” Senator Paterson said.
“The question for Labor is, are they still proposing closer military relations with the Peoples’ Liberation Army and if not, when did they dump this crazy policy?
”However, a spokesman for Mr Marles said that questions about the speech were a “distraction” designed to take attention away from the government’s troubles.
“This is a desperate and pathetic attempt to distract from the train wreck that is the Morrison government,” he said.
